Lafayette 148 Resort 2023 Collection

What we wear in our early adulthood tends to imprint itself in our style DNA. Once a ’90s minimalist, always a ’90s minimalist. That’s Lafayette 148’s Emily Smith to a tee, and she’s tapping into her roots—and the brand’s, it was founded in mid-’90s New York—for resort.

There’s a direct throughline from the runways of that time with their cool, clean, and architectural silhouettes to the strapless columns worn over matching pants and neoprene platforms in this lookbook. A pantsuit with a lapelless jacket and slouchy trousers is similarly streamlined, and the denim comes in the soft fades and shapes of treasured vintage Levi’s.

Where the collection departs from the ’90s playbook is in its vivid color. Black was a uniform in downtown New York during those pre-millennium years. At Lafayette 148, Smith uses golden yellow and sky blue for double-breasted suits and bright red for fuzzy shearling-covered heels. Model Tasha Tilberg gives the clothes a dash of ’90s verisimilitude, but the grit we associate with the years she was on the catalks didn’t make the trip. That’s another tendency of our style DNA—the edginess of youth is often replaced by polish and urbanity. Here that translated to flat sandals with sumptuous rabbit fur lining.